Collared (Captured by the Billionaire #6)(5)
Author: Julia Sykes

Celeste whimpered beneath her.  “Please!  I’ll give you anything you want!”

“I want you to hurt,” Mallory replied viciously.  Then she drew her fist back before swinging it down to connect with Celeste’s perfectly aquiline nose.  There was a sickening crunching sound as it broke under her knuckles, but all Mallory felt was a surge of vindictive pleasure.  This woman had tried to ruin her life, had threatened to kill her.  She deserved to pay.

Mallory drew her fist back again, ignoring the pain in her hand.  But a strong hand was around her wrist, restraining her.  She jerked her arm, barely aware of the wrenching pain as she pulled at her wound.

“That’s enough, Mallory,” Jake’s voice ordered softly.  Mallory wanted to continue, but she couldn’t resist Jake’s command.  The tension left her muscles, and she felt him grip her waist, lifting her up so that she was standing.  Celeste stayed down, groaning.

Spinning her around, he pulled her into a tight embrace.

“But she deserves it,” Mallory whispered.  “She threatened to kill you.  And she hurt me.”

“I know she deserves it,” Jake’s voice was hard, his anger barely contained.  “But I don’t want you charged with assault.”

Mallory clung to him, suddenly overwhelmed by everything that had happened.  The adrenaline had run its course, and her legs suddenly felt like jelly.  Jake lifted her up in his arms as her legs gave out beneath her.  As he did so, he bumped up against her wounded arm, and she let out a small whimper.  He growled in fury as he felt the wetness of her blood against him.

“On second thought,” he said, his voice tight.  “Maybe I should have let you strangle the bitch.”  He took a deep breath, visibly calming himself.  “Come on, let’s get you patched up.”

The sounds of several people crunching through dried leaves filled the silence around them.  “She’s over here,” Jake called out to the police.

An officer with a flashlight was at their side within a minute.  He looked down at Celeste where she was moaning on the forest floor.  “What happened to her?”  He asked suspiciously.

“She fell,” Jake said harshly, his tone brooking no argument.

The officer met his hard eyes.  “Right,” he said after a moment.  He eyed Mallory.  “Is she alright?”

“No,” Jake said, anger leaking into his tone.  “She needs to see a doctor.”

The policeman gestured towards the cabin.  “There’s an ambulance waiting over there.”

“Thank you,” Jake said simply before turning and heading quickly back towards the shack.

“How did you find me?”  Mallory asked in a small voice.

“The Jag has GPS.”  He gave her a small smile.  “Thank god you took it.”

Mallory blushed slightly.  “Sorry about that,” she said, feeling guilty.

“Not at all,” he replied, amused.  “Please feel free to steal my cars anytime.”

Chapter 4

Mallory was feeling a little fuzzy as Jake tucked her into his enormous bed.  The doctors had stitched up her arm and then had given her the most fabulous painkillers before letting her leave the hospital.  She could hardly feel any discomfort at all anymore, just a dull, gently throbbing ache in her torn muscles.  She had light scratches down her cheek from Celeste’s claws and a small cut at her throat where Charlie’s knife had bitten into her skin.  But those would heal within a week or so.  Her arm would take considerably longer to knit back together.  Hence she had been sent home with a large bottle of these lovely pills.

Well, she wasn’t actually at her apartment; she was at Jake’s house.  But she found that she felt at home with him.  She gave a little contented sigh, feeling like she was floating on Jake’s soft mattress.  He settled down beside her and shaped his hard body around hers, as though he couldn’t get close enough to her.  Mallory breathed in his masculine scent and closed her eyes in rapture.

“Jake,” she mumbled his name sleepily.  Shoving back the fog in her brain, she tried for a more normal tone.  “I’ve been thinking.”

He tenderly stroked her hair back from her face.  “Shhh,” he said.  “You just go to sleep, Mallory,” he ordered gently.

“No,” she said as staunchly as she could manage.  She wouldn’t give into his commands this time; this was too important, and she felt that she needed to say it now, to let him know how she felt.

“I want you to collar me.”  Her voice was clear and she looked him directly in the eye.

Jake’s brows rose in surprise.  “Mallory,” he said gently.  “We should talk about this later.”  But she could see the yearning in his eyes.

“No,” she said again.  “Jake, they only caught me because I went there to save you.  I thought that they were going to kill you.”  She gave a little shudder.  “I couldn’t bear the thought of my life without you in it, and if you need to collar me to have that, then that’s what I want to do.”

“Mallory,” he said a bit harshly.  “I don’t want to collar you because you feel manipulated into it.”

“But I don’t,” she insisted.  “I want to be yours.”  Then her voice went quiet.  “And I want you to be mine.”

Jake looked dumbstruck, as though he could hardly believe what was happening.  But his expression quickly became closed.  “We’ll talk about this later, Mallory,” he said again.

She wanted to protest, but the drugs were swirling in her brain.  She had fought it for as long as she could, but now she was being pulled under.

“I love you, Jake,” she mumbled, hardly conscious of what she was saying.

The last thing she heard before she fell asleep was his sharp intake of breath.

It had been three weeks since Mallory had been kidnapped.  Thankfully, her arm was well on its way to being mended, and as she healed the nightmares became fewer and farther between.  She had awoken in a cold sweat more times than she could recall, panicking that she was still trapped in the dilapidated shack, afraid for her life.  But most often she revisited her fear for Jake when she had thought his life was in danger.  Her heart would twist painfully for the moments that it took him to calm her, holding her and murmuring soft reassurances as he stroked her hair.  She clung to him tightly, making sure he was real, until she finally fell back into sleep.